legendary_epicnessfandomcom-20200214-history
Courage Virtue Journal
Part of the Virtues Project for the Fall Semester 2017. What does this virtue mean to you? It took courage for me to come to martial arts school in the first place. As someone who came from the arts franchise location, I was used to significantly smaller classes - there were some days where I would show up to find myself the only student there, and on average there were about four to seven, MAYBE ten, students in a class. As martial arts school grew the latter grew to about twelve, but classes besides the afterschool and summer camp classes were still generally very small compared to the classes here. Sometimes we’d have twenty students, but that was very rare. The average class was composed of one or two families, a few kids who took the Family class because it worked better with their schedule than the Children’s class, and me. Later on we picked up some other teenagers, and kids from the Children’s class grew up and joined us, but all the way until the day I left, the composition remained about the same. I was also used to a completely different group of people. Everyone at [] was like family to me, and we were all very close. Everyone talked to everyone, and everyone was friends with everyone. We had two gigantic dojangs but barely even needed the first one, there were so few of us. But that’s why we were so close. And it wasn’t just among the students – Instructor name, who was, for a long time, the only instructor there, was really close with us too. We had a balance between training and talking, swapping stories before and after class (people always stayed for a bit to talk), and throughout class I would comment on pretty much everything, knowing exactly when it was the appropriate time to say something and when it wasn’t. After class I would always stay for a while to talk to name and Instructor name, taking as long as possible to put on my shoes. WELL, LOOKS LIKE I CAN’T FIND MY SHOES! I GUESS I HAVE TO STAY HERE FOREVER! YAAAAAAAAAAY and I DON’T LIKE THE WAY I TIED THIS SHOE; LET ME UNTIE IT. WAIT, I DON’T LIKE THE WAY THE OTHER SHOE IS TIED EITHER and pretty much every possible way one can procrastinate. I never wanted to leave, and it really broke my heart the day I had to. We had recently moved to city again, after living on a rural property in Leesburg for six years. Two of those six years I had spent at martial arts school. I could still go to the same arts franchise location, just it would be a longer drive - that was the only change. That’s what I thought, anyway, until Instructor name told me he was going back to arts franchise location. As much as martial arts school meant to me, he was basically its soul, so without him, I knew it wouldn’t be the same. The long drive would still be worth it, since this is martial arts school we’re talking about, but without him there . . . it wouldn’t be nearly as worth it, if that makes any sense. Also just . . . the memories would be too painful. martial arts school was changing, and by staying there, I would only be constantly reminded of the past. So that’s enough background information. So anyway, I left martial arts school, and for several weeks afterwards I was very emotionally broken, I guess you could say. I was beyond sad. I cried a lot at home, at school, and even in class. I felt isolated from everyone else and more alone than I’d ever been – it felt like the world was over. I stopped trying in class because my fighting spirit was gone; it was kind of like taekwondo had lost all the meaning it had once had, becoming only exactly what it was: a martial art. Nothing more. There was no spirit in anything I did. It was sort of like I jumped through a time portal but left my heart on the other side. It took courage for me to move past all that and to actually try in class. I didn’t get that courage myself, because when I fall into a chasm like that there’s no way I’m climbing out of it myself. But my fighting spirit came back and everything got better. Of course, I still miss martial arts school and the way things used to be – nothing’s going to change that. But courage helped me overcome my feeling of isolation and all the loneliness I felt. Because I found courage, I didn’t give up, despite how I felt. How did embracing this virtue help you, your school, family, or community? I lost confidence in myself, but courage was the reason I got that confidence back. It took courage for me to give my best effort in class at a new martial arts school. Category:Virtues Project Category:Courage Category:2017 Fall Semester